In this lesson, we take a look at Back-End technologies in software development. That is a technical term that deals with server-side operations, including CRUD functions with database and server logic. Meanwhile, Front-End development is programming which focuses on the visual elements of a website or app that a user will interact with.

Back-End technologies are essential in the development of software projects. Whether you are a startup founder, or a corporate decision-maker, selecting the right Back-End technology is crucial to determine your project success. Choosing the correct Back-End technologies can guarantee scalability, functioning speed, and instant response to customers’ needs.

In our video, we explain foundation concepts that aspiring developers shouldn’t miss. Keep up with the videos, and you will learn about:

• Databases: They are a place for storing our data but in an organized structure.  Data is organized and stored in the form of tables. A table contains rows and columns. Each row in a table is a record, and column a field that describes the row.  Read our article about them here.

• ORM: This is short of Object Relational Mapping. It is the idea of writing queries using your favorite programming language. You interact with a database using your language of choice instead of SQL. Read our article about them here.

• MVC: The term stands for Model–View–Controller. It is a design pattern used to help us build frameworks for applications. The MVC splits the application into three different sections. Each section represents one word from the abbreviature. Each component has a specific responsibility and has a link to the others. Read our article about them here.
• Web Services and APIs:  Web Service is a network-based resource that fulfills a specific task. On the other hand, API is an interface that allows you to build on the data and functionality of another application. There is an overlap between the two. WEB services are APIs, but APIs can be offline. Many public APIs are transparent, with open documentation and self-service portals for quick developer onboarding. On the other hand, Web Services are not open source. Instead, they tend to offer specific data and functionality to partners.

• REST and RESTful Services: REST is a set of architectural constraints, not a protocol or a standard. API developers can implement REST in a variety of ways. When a client request is made via a RESTful API, it transfers a representation of the state of the resource to the requester or endpoint. This information, or representation, is delivered in one of several formats via HTTP. Restful Web Services is a lightweight, maintainable, and scalable service built on the REST architecture. It also exposes API from your application in a stateless manner to the calling client. The calling client can perform predefined operations using the Restful service.

• Virtualization, Containers, and Docker: Virtualization is a relatively new technology that allows creating a completely isolated machine from scratch, all in software. Nowadays, companies are starting to prefer Docker. It s a tool that uses containers to make the creation, deployment, and running of applications a lot easier. Read our article about them here.

Hopefully, reading all this about Back-end technologies will help you in making the right decision. No matter what language you are using, all of those concepts are the same. For every aspiring programmer, it’s a must to know all of the topics. If you want to learn more about the differences between Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack technologies you can read our article here.

In this lesson, you will become familiar with: virtualization, containers, docker, and cloud platforms.
Have you ever wondered how to operate multiple Operating Systems on your computer? Thanks to virtualization, we can do that!

Virtualization is a relatively new technology that allows creating a completely isolated machine from scratch, all in software. Its dictionary definition is creating a virtual instance of an operating system, server, storage device, etc. In the IT industry, virtualization is running a virtual instance of a computer as a layer abstracted from the actual hardware.

World-famous providers like Linux and other open-source cloud solutions define virtualization as a technology that lets you create IT services using resources traditionally bound to hardware. It allows you to use a physical machine’s full capacity by distributing its capabilities among many users or environments”.

Nowadays, companies are starting to prefer Docker. It s a tool that uses containers to make the creation, deployment, and running of applications a lot easier. It binds the application and its dependencies inside a container.

But what is the difference between Docker and virtual machines?

Docker is an example of virtualization, but with a few differences:

• Containers share the same system resources and don’t have separated resources.
• A Docker doesn’t have an OS inside.
• It allows running multiple workloads on the same OS.

For example, if you have a 1 GB container image and want to use more than one virtual machine, you need to have 1 Gb multiplied by the numbers of the VM you want. If you use Docker, you can share the 1 GB between all the Docker containers.

In most real-life cases, your applications will have external dependencies, such as databases, message queues, or other external services that your application communicates to. You will need a reliable and easy-to-use way of bringing these dependencies into your development environment. Docker has a good solution for this called Docker Composer. It’s a tool for defining and running multi-container applications. That, combined with a cloud platform, will be the perfect solution.

A cloud platform is the operating and hardware system in a remote internet-based data center. It allows software and hardware products to co-exist remotely and at scale.

Overall, Virtual Machines are the most effective way to reduce IT expenses while boosting efficiency and agility for all-size businesses. Docker allows applications to be packaged with all the dependencies inside, which simplifies the deployment process quite a bit, and you get to have full reproducible environments.